Meningitis B: What You Need To Know

A petition is calling for the meningitis B vaccine to be given to all children after images of a toddler who died from the disease went viral. Warning: You may find some of the images in this post distressing.

The parents of a 2-year-old girl who recently died from meningitis have shared images of their daughter in hospital to raise awareness.

Since then, thousands of people have signed a petition to extend meningitis B vaccinations to older children.

A national meningitis B vaccination program was launched last year and the vaccine is offered on the NHS when children are aged between 2 and 5 months. But if parents of older children want them vaccinated they must pay privately.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membrane around the brain and spinal cord.

That's the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater layers you can see in this diagram.

It's usually caused by bacteria or a virus.

The viral form is the most common, but the bacterial form is the most dangerous, according to the NHS. Rarely, meningitis can also be caused by a fungus or parasite.

Most cases of bacterial meningitis in the UK and Ireland are caused by neisseria meningitidis, often called meningococcal bacteria. Of the 12 known groups of meningococcal bacteria, group B – which is protected against by the meningitis B vaccine – is responsible for about 90% of meningococcal infections in the UK.

Babies and under-5s are particularly susceptible to meningitis.

This is Charlotte Cleverley-Bisman, who became famous in New Zealand as the face of a meningitis awareness campaign. She was diagnosed with meningococcal disease in 2004 and less than a month later had all four limbs amputated in order to survive.

But adults can get it too. It can be very serious, leading to brain damage, amputations, and death.

But not every case of meningitis involves a rash.

Warning signs for babies with the disease include: fever; vomiting and refusing to feed; feeling agitated and not wanting to be picked up; becoming drowsy, floppy, and unresponsive; breathing rapidly; having pale, blotchy skin; having a tense, bulging soft spot on their head; having a stiff neck and disliking bright lights; having convulsions or seizures.

A meningitis B vaccine programme began in the UK in September 2015. The vaccine is offered free to children who are between 2 and 5 months old as part of their childhood immunisations, and is also available to people who have a medical condition that puts them at increased risk of meningitis B.

Babies born before May 2015 are not offered the vaccine on the NHS, but their parents may choose to pay privately to get it.